The Art of the French Braid
by Sohotthateveryonedied
Summary: Cass, Barbara, and Stephanie have some girl time. Sisterly fluff!


"What did you do to your hair?"

Cass whipped around to find Barbara wheeling up behind her. She didn't know anyone else was in the manor besides Stephanie and herself. She had been training for the majority of the night while Steph slept upstairs.

"What?", she asked. Her hair was fine in her opinion. A tad messy, yes. But efficient nonetheless. Barbara wheeled to a stop in front of her.

"Well, look at it." She made a gesture towards her head. "It's frizzy. And you kind of just twisted two pieces around over and over again."

Cass shrugged and turned back to the punching bag she had been previously working on. "It is fine to me", she stated. It can't matter how she wears her hair, right? It's not like anyone cares.

"Has no one ever taught you how to do your hair?"

Cass answered more tentatively this time. "No…", she admitted before focusing completely on her task. Of course no one had taught her to style hair. Her father trained her to kill and nothing more. And not having a mother figure didn't make that any easier.

Babs thought for a moment, watching the girl she considered her sister strike the bag with expert fluidity. Cassandra often reminded her of a cat, quick and sly. She was trained practically from birth to become the perfect soldier, but no one had ever informed her on the normal traditions of teenage girls. She could fix that.

After five more minutes Cass took a break from the punching bag, grabbing a water bottle from the nearby table. Barbara sat behind her and gently touched the ends of Cass' hair. "I could teach you how to do a French braid", she offered.

Cass turned to her with a questioning look on her normally indifferent face. She cocked her head to the side, her mess of a hairstyle swinging towards her shoulder.

"It would be convenient for keeping your hair out of your face during a fight", Barbara added.

Cass stared for a few seconds before finally nodding and allowing Barbara to lead her out of the Cave and towards the main part of the house. She was surprised when her companion continued all the way towards Steph's room. "Where are we going?"

Barbara rapped on the white door that housed Stephanie's room. Even though she and Steph weren't technically part of the Wayne family, they still each had a room for nights when they were too exhausted to go home. They were pretty much honorary family members, and that counted just as much as it would otherwise. "Steph has the best hair in the house besides Tim, but he's not here right now so we'll borrow her instead."

It took some more knocking, but eventually the door opened to reveal a tired and slightly disheveled Stephanie Brown. She was always more concerned about her so called "beauty sleep" than the others were, so it was expected that she'd be sleeping at eleven o'clock at night while everyone else was up and energized. She rubbed her eyes tiredly, adjusting the long purple t-shirt she wore to bed every night.

"Nn, what do you guys want?", she asked, her voice rough with sleep. She yawned and stretched her arms above her head.

Barbara grabbed Cass gently around the arms and turned her around, holding up her hair. "I need to give Cass here braiding lessons and I need some hair to work with while I demonstrate. You in?"

Immediately Stephanie's once half-lidded eyes perked up, excitement apparent in them. "Girl time? Sure! Just give me a sec…" Stephanie wandered back into her room, sounds of her rummaging around for something emitting from inside. After a few seconds she returned, holding several beauty products Cass couldn't even name in her arms.

Cassandra could tell this wasn't going to end well, but Barbara and Stephanie seemed excited, so she didn't think she would mind playing Barbie doll for them while they play with her hair. Besides, even if she'd never say it out loud,

…

"Ow! Not so tight", Steph complained to Barbara whose fingers continued to twist and pull at the blonde hair before her. The three girls were gathered on the carpet in the middle of Barbara's room, Steph sitting impatiently in front of Barbara as she tried demonstrating to Cass how to French braid one's hair in a proper fashion. She had already fixed Cass' hair, it now hanging in a short braid over he shoulder.

"Maybe if you stopped fidgeting it wouldn't hurt so much", she smirked.

Cass had been sitting by cross-legged, paying close attention to the skillfull way Barbara weaved the three long strands of Stephanie's yellow mane. It was so intricate and graceful, she wondered who had invented such a thing. She scratched at her eye, the freshly applied mascara proving to be quite annoying. Steph had only agreed to play guinea pig on the condition that she would be allowed to also do Cass' makeup beforehand.

Barbara had finally managed to twist Steph's hair into a beautiful braid that hung down her back. "Voila, a French braid", Barbara said as she turned to her side where Cass sat quietly. "Questions?"

Cass reached out a finger and softly touched the long braid. "I can try?", she asked. She was fairly sure she had it down by now: take three strands, put a strand from the end into the middle, add more hair to opposite one, alternate sides, and continue until there was no more hair left.

Steph smiled and nodded as she carefully undid the beautiful braid Barbara had done just minutes before. "Just be careful?", she suggested.

Cass nodded and began replicating the pattern Barbara had shown her, messing up and needing to start over a couple times but soon falling into a nice rhythm. As she worked she listened to her friends chattering around her. They had started out talking about this new movie coming out before somehow moving to their respective boyfriends.

"Nope. There is no way he does that, it's impossible", Steph giggled.

"Believe me, I wish I were lying. Dick can't overcome his overwhelming need to belt out Let It Go whenever he hears it. Just yesterday we were watching TV in his apartment and Frozen was on. Not only did he sing along, he somehow knew he entire script by heart and said the lines, word for word."

By this point even Cass was laughing at her brother's antics. Who knew Dick could be so adorable?

Steph wiped a tear from her eye, still grinning uncontrollably. "Well, at least he doesn't stay awake for five days straight until he starts walking around and talking like a zombie the way Tim does."

"What does he do?", Barbara asked.

Steph rolled her eyes. "Just last week I was doing the mountain of dishes at his apartment when he shuffled in and asked me why koalas' noses were so big", she laughed.

Cass had finished weaving Stephanie's hair, which looked almost identical to the one Barbara had made. She tied it with a hair tie before joining in the conversation. "What else he say?", she inquired.

Steph turned around to face the other two, all too happily launching into the rest of her story. "Well, after I told him to take a nap he kept telling me he was fine and that sleep was for the weak, blah blah blah." She rolled her eyes again. "By that point I was like 'screw it' and tried shoving him towards the bedroom so he could stop bothering me.

"Then he went on about how if the paparazzi could see him they would think a lot of different things about me pushing him into his room. I was cracking up the whole time, especially the way he spoke. He was all:", she pulled a tired face that looked just like Tim's. "'Don' take 'way m'coffee. I need it t'fight crime'".

She lost the goofy expression and started laughing along with Barbara and Cass, who were gasping with laughter. Cass couldn't remember having this much fun in a long time. It felt good to laugh like this, so carefree and happy.

Barbara was the first to compose herself. "You should see Dick when he gets tired. He does this weird thing where he can't really think straight. You could ask him a question regarding politics and he'd respond with something about bananas."

Cass chuckled. "Tired habits must run in family", she teased.

"Probably, since apparently nobody in this family knows how to sleep like a normal human being", Steph said, still holding onto some bitterness about being woken up. "You did a really good braid, by the way, Cass."

Barbara nodded in approval and complimented, "Yup, you're good at picking stuff up easily." She yawned, Steph and Cass following suit. They talked some more about anything that popped into their heads before one by one they began to fall asleep right there on the floor.

Steph nudged Cass weakly with her foot, her eyes still closed. "Mmph. Cass."

"What?", Cass answered tiredly.

Stephanie paused to yawn before answering, "Next time I'll show you how to use nail polish".


End file.
